Doctor Whooves - The Series: Episode Three - Along Came a Spider

by Loyal2Luna

Ch. 5: Trouble Brewing

“Now, Twilight, I’m not an expert…” The Doctor tilted his head slightly, watching the lavender unicorn as she carefully tilted the gourd of hastily brewed tea to her lips with both hooves, thirst taking precedence over panic. “But I’m pretty sure you can only do that to male equines.”

Fluttershy blushed horribly as Twilight choked on her tea, fumbling with her hooves to keep hold of the dried husk of vegetable.

“No. No, Doctor. No.” The unicorn, cheeks flushed, shook her head violently as she came to a rather abrupt realization of what the Time Pony was talking about. “Not that kind of gelding, jeez. Nopony’s practiced that horrible tradition in… ugh… centuries. No, I mean Unicorn Gelding.”

“Ah…” The brown stallion nodded for a moment, then returned to a neutral, blank expression. “I still don’t get it.”

Twilight let out an exasperated sigh as she set down the blackened gourd filled with zebra herbal tea, resigning herself to sit back and explain in spite of wanting nothing more than to curl up in a ball out of shame.

“These…” Twilight motioned to her chest and forelegs, indicating the intricate black patterns that were drawn along her coat. “…are Gelding Marks. They use arcane patterns and runes to act as a buffer between a unicorn’s internal magic and the rest of the world. They were developed thousands of years ago by Sir Justice the Templar during the Reign of Dame Dawn, specifically for the purpose of defeating the Hierarchy of Arcana, a unicorn faction that attempted to overthrow their alicorn ruler. Captured members of the Hierarchy were ‘gelded,’ robbing them of their great advantage and eventually ending the civil war. These days, the technique is performed on unicorn criminals that abuse their magical prowess, or cast forbidden magic on other ponies.”

“So, it’s a magic blocker?” the Doctor asked as Twilight took a breath.

“More like an... insulator. You see, magic comes from within; it can't be extinguished as long as a pony is alive. But to effect the rest of the world, it has to be channeled, that's what unicorn horns are for,” Twilight explained, pointing towards her horn, where a branching set of lines were centered before running down the sides of her face. “The runes run down from my horn and ground any magic I try to focus before it can be released. The term ‘gelded’ came along as an insult to the Hierarchy unicorns that used their magic to lord over earth ponies, and were rendered impotent.”

“Can’t we just wash them off?” Fluttershy asked timidly, taking one of Twilight’s legs and running a hoof over her coat, attempting to rub the black mark out of her fur for a moment before the unicorn pulled away.

“If it were that easy, it couldn’t have ended a war!” Twilight snapped, causing her friend to cringe. The unicorn sighed and shook her head, regretting her tone immediately. “I’m sorry, Fluttershy… You see, Gelding Marks can be removed, but the secret of how to do so is known only to ranking officials in the Arbiter’s Court, the Judges and Lawmakers that advise the Princesses and nobility in legal matters and settle disputes that fall above the local authorities.”

Twilight crossed her forelegs, the most pressing of the questions on her mind given sudden voice. “The Arbiter’s Court officials are also the only ponies in Equestria that know how to apply Gelding Marks. According to my studies in Canterlot, it’s only been done maybe a dozen times during Celestia’s Reign; the punishment is reserved only for the worst of the worst offenders.” Twilight looked at her hooves again, her shoulders slumping in realization. “And now... me.”

“Which brings to mind the question…” The Doctor turned towards the cauldron, where the zebra potion maker had been continuing his work unabated while the ponies had been tending to their own. “Zilaka, do you know anything about this?”

“My mastery is of potions, salves, and powders,” the medicine zebra stated plainly, lifting a gourd out of the bubbling cauldron and checking it -- for what, exactly, the Doctor did not know. “I know of unicorns from the tales woven by our old storyteller, but I have never seen one until this day, just as I have never seen a pegasus or earth pony. And I most certainly have never heard of this ability to counteract their powers. But the Anasi have proven time and time again to be very resourceful.”

The Doctor tapped his chin thoughtfully as Twilight moved to her hooves and stretched. “Twilight, the Anasi have mental capabilities. Is it possible they were able to read your mind while you were sleeping and extract what you know about this so they could use it against you?” he suggested.

“No, impossible. I can recognize them and I know the history behind them, but there are secret rituals and special inks needed to perform a Gelding, none of which anypony outside the Arbiter’s Court knows the details of.” Twilight shook her head before allowing herself a small smirk. “Besides, if they had read my mind…”

Twilight trailed off, looking to the Doctor who nodded in agreement as he ran over what he himself knew. If they had somehow managed to read Twilight’s mind, that meant they would know about the TARDIS, and the fact that they were not simply ponies. Both facts that the Doctor doubted the Anasi would have failed to act upon while he was being interrogated.

Tagati, acting as little more than a mouthpiece for this "Anasi," had said that Twilight "defied" them, which wasn’t surprising. In the time that he had known her, his horned companion had proven to be quite willful and intelligent; two traits that lent themselves heavily to psychic resistance.

But if they hadn’t gotten the details about the Gelding Marks from Twilight… then how?

“Ugh! I hate this!” Twilight futilely pounded her hooves on the floor, drawing the Doctor’s attention again. “I’m... useless now.”

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous, Twilight. Of course you’re not,” the Doctor tried to comfort her as she shrugged off Fluttershy’s sympathetic hoof on her shoulder and closed her eyes, clearly focusing with some effort. Whereas before, any use of magic would cause Twilight’s horn to glow with power; now, there wasn’t the barest flicker of a spark to be seen.

“Ungh! Ouch… I can’t even make a light. I can’t teleport us… I can’t cast spells… I’ve tried to go without magic before, and I make an absolutely horrible earth pony.” Twilight’s shoulders slumped.

“So do I,” the Doctor admitted with a shrug. “Hasn’t stopped me yet.” Twilight looked up into the brown stallion’s blue eyes as he held her attention. “I know it’s difficult, Twilight, but if we’re going to get through this, I need your A-game right now… and I don’t mean your magic. You’re the cleverest unicorn I’ve ever met.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed as she smirked mockingly, breaking the moment up with a bit of snark. “Aside from me, name all the unicorns you've spoken to for more than five minutes,” she asked of him.

“Rarity...” the Doctor said without hesitation.

“Yeah, that’s what I thou--”

“...and Leonard,” he finished, causing Twilight’s smirk to vanish at that comment. “With that in mind, I stand by my original assessment.”

There was a quiet moment between the two of them that Fluttershy watched, taking in how her good friend’s face cycled through several emotions before nodding with a huff. “Okay,” she started, getting up on all fours. “You’re right… I’m okay now. So, what did I miss?”

As the Doctor started to give Twilight a rundown of the events that had transpired since her incapacitation, Fluttershy found her attention wandering and drawn over to the still frantically-working zebra that was pulling multiple gourds from the boiling cauldron. Taking a look at how there were no flames or smoke coming from under the black metal pot, the pegasus couldn’t help but ask, “How are you heating that?”

The zebra was brought out of his internal considerations as the yellow mare approached. “I beg your pardon?”

“The water… how are you heating… Wait…” Fluttershy leaned over the cauldron and sniffed, surprised by the slightly acidic smell that emanated from the brown, bubbling substance. “That’s… not water.”

“Of course not. Water has become very valuable these days. Enough to fill this cauldron would probably be more than all of Stone-Water is allowed to drink in a week, barring the Anasi…” Zilaka answered, using a set of tongs to pull a gourd from the cauldron and setting it on his small workbench, unplugging the cork in the top and sniffing at the contents. “Over the past few years, I have learned to improvise. This is the juice from the Mau Root: a plant that is unpalatable to all but the most desperate of creatures and still found in abundance around the Plains. It has survived the Parching because it stores moisture for long periods and effectively dissuades anything from eating it.”

“So it’s poisonous?” Fluttershy tilted her head, looking at the zebra as if he were crazy. “You’re mixing potions in a toxic soup?”

“No, it is drinkable… although some zebras might prefer dying of thirst rather than resort to putting any in their mouths. Still, it works as a substitute for water in several applications, potion preparation being one of them. The gourd’s hard outer skin prevents the flavor from seeping through, yet transfers the heat from the boiling Mau Root Juice to the potions inside and simmers them appropriately.”

“I can’t imagine that a thirsty pon-- err… zebra would pass up something just because it tasted bad,” the pegasus commented, trying to wrap her head around the idea.

Zilaka smirked, reaching up and pulling a wooden ladle from the bench with his teeth, which he then dipped into the bubbling cauldron. “Hold out your hoof,” he instructed, still gripping the ladle, which he promptly turned upside down so it was dripping slightly.

Unsure where he was going with this, Fluttershy did as asked, having to resist flinching when the zebra brought the ladle over her hoof and shook it, allowing a drop to fall along the edge of her fetlock. Much to her shock, rather than singe or burn, the off-brown liquid only felt lukewarm, but also...

Fluttershy's entire muzzle twisted in a grimace and her tongue committed mutiny against her brain, as if trying to punish her for even thinking about taking a taste.

“Unnggh!” the pegasus exclaimed with a softer than expected tone despite the overwhelming amount of disgust. Quickly, she tried her hardest to scrape off the offending substance onto the floor. “I can taste it in my mouth! That's... horrible!”

Zilaka set the ladle aside, showing an amused expression as he continued his work, his hooves carefully dipping the tongs into the bubbling mix without touching the liquid himself.

“Now imagine that… only a dozen times worse. Most zebras will retch if they try to drink it,” Zilaka explained. “When I was young, my mother used to use it as a method to discipline my brother and I when we got into trouble, so we became very familiar with its taste. I promised myself I would never do the same with my own foals…”

Any mirth he felt was lost in an instant as Fluttershy followed his eyes towards the far side of the hut, where the small striped foal still lay, her back towards them as she convulsed and murmured in a restless, pained sleep.

“...For whatever good it did.” Zilaka’s lowered his head with a soft, sad sigh. “Perhaps if I had been sterner, or… if I had raised her more traditionally… I could have--”

“What happened wasn’t your fault,” Fluttershy stated quickly, interrupting the zebra and drawing his attention towards her.

“Was it not?” Zilaka shook his head. “If not I, then who? I never should have let her out of my sight; should not have encouraged her curious nature. I should have kept her close at hoof, protected her from--”

“Zilaka…” Fluttershy uttered softly. “It wasn’t your fault.”

The zebra was silent for a moment. “Do you have any foals of your own, Fluttershy?”

“Not of my own, no… but I take care of a lot of animals. And I know that, like foals, you can’t always protect them from their own nature... Sometimes, you have to let them find their own way.”

“Then our societies differ greatly, my winged friend,” Zilaka pointed out, turning back to his work as he spoke. “In Zebrica, colts and fillies are supposed to be groomed; to have ‘defined’ roles in our culture. Colts learn trades and defend the herd from threats, while the fillies among us are supposed to be taught to give back to their herd. To tend to the spiritual and practical needs of others. She was never content with that,” the striped stallion confided, his own thoughts introspective as his eyes moved back towards the young filly. “From the moment she was old enough to think for herself, she refused to conform… to be what others wanted her to be. She wanted to learn and explore, she wanted to discover new things. And most peculiarly… she wanted to do it on her own.”

Fluttershy bit her lip for a moment. “She… spoke very highly of you,” she stated hesitantly.

Zilaka bit back a sharp laugh. “I doubt that very much,” he rebutted her, shaking his head. “She has never forgiven me for not resisting the Anasi like the other Ash-Stripes. For not being able to sway her brother to stay with us rather than serve them... or save her mother from whatever twisted her into her current state.”

The potion maker turned back to his work, handling a gourd carefully with the hardened edges of his hooves before unplugging the cork and taking a sniff.

“And she is right not to… Spirits know that I have not even tried.”

“So, she only ended up in her current condition because we came back to find a cure for her current condition…” Twilight shook her head, a new headache she was on the verge of dubbing the "Timey-Wimey Winces" forming in her temples as the Doctor brought her up to speed on the events that had transpired while she had been drugged.

“Yes, my old friend, the Novikov Self-Consistency Principle,” the Time Stallion explained, keeping his voice down so that their conversation did not travel to the zebra stallion’s ears. “The consequences of what happened here caused us to come back to cause the events that lead to those consequences in the first place.”

“So… you're saying it’s not a paradox?” Twilight asked hopefully. “We don’t need to worry about another one of those things tearing Ponyville apart again?”

“Not yet. But we’re on thin ice, here.” The Doctor huffed. “If we deviate from what Zecora remembers or her interpretation of events, especially if they lead to her altering the future decisions that led her to Ponyville or her current condition, the time-stream could fracture and, assuming that our previous travels haven’t shored up the timeline enough, it could cause a paradox.”

“But, Doctor, we don’t know how she interpreted these events. I’ve known Zecora for almost two years. Why didn’t she ever mention anything about this?”

“If I had to hazard a guess…” The Doctor set one hoof against his chin. “It’s because somepony told her, or will tell her, not to.”

“Ugh…” Twilight facehoofed with a frustrated grunt as she gave up trying to follow the Time Lord’s train of thought.

“I warned you: traveling with an agenda gets complicated fast,” the Doctor said, nodding sagely.

“Can you at least save the ‘I told you so’ until we get back to the library?” Twilight asked, not wanting the sagely tone to turn smug.

The Doctor smirked playfully. “No promises…”

“Doctor…” Fluttershy moved up next to the brown stallion, her expression oddly bright given how tired she looked. “I just had an idea.”

“And here it comes…” the Doctor sighed, shaking his head; a sign that the yellow pegasus either missed or ignored.

“Why don’t we simply go back to the TARDIS, head to Canterlot to get those marks off Twilight, and ask Zecora for the recipe to this potion so that we can come back and--”

“No.” Twilight and the Doctor both cut her off, sharing a blank expression as they spoke out together.

“But… why not?”

“First, we would have to get to the TARDIS, which is miles away sitting on a wide open plain…” the Doctor started…

“…while avoiding Celestia knows how many Anasi warriors who are familiar with the terrain.” Twilight finished for him.

“Assuming we got there, we would have to actually leave…”

“…and since we’re already part of the events here, there is absolutely no guarantee that we would make it back to the same year, much less the same day.”

“Then to Canterlot and the Arbiter’s Court to have the Gelding Marks removed…”

“…which I'm sure the Arbiters will be very interested to know how I ended up with them on me in the first place.”

“And even assuming we can get them removed, we’d have to convince Zecora to part with the recipe...”

“…when she could have just done that before, yet didn’t for reasons that we still don’t understand.”

“But…” Fluttershy trying very hard to follow the two as they traded off explaining the flaws in what she had thought was a pretty straightforward plan. “But we already know that whatever we do here… it works. I mean…” The shy pegasus looked down, her voice growing more quiet as she lost whatever confidence had bolstered her moments ago. “We know Zecora survives this and moves to Ponyville… We…” She lowered her head, hiding behind her hair as the Doctor’s deep blue eyes turned to her, filled with concern. “W-we win… don’t we?”

“Fluttershy, I know this is hard… but there is a key rule to time travel that you have to understand, here.” The Doctor shook his head, his tone caring and soft. “Remember what I said that night on the Moon? That there are fixed moments that must always happen?”

“Y…yes, I remember.”

“This isn’t one of them. This moment in history is in flux. That means that whatever happens here is not set in stone. History can change and time can be rewritten,” the stallion explained. “We are part of these events now… and we have to see it through to the end as best we can, no matter what.”

The pegasus swallowed visibly as the implications seemed to strike a chord in her, realization of the weight of their situation sinking in for perhaps the first time.

“Are you alright?” the Doctor asked, his tone still concerned as he internally cringed, wondering if he had been too harsh and direct in handling the admittedly frail mare.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight likewise sounded worried.

“I… I just… um… need some air…” The pegasus looked as if she was fighting down panic, the pressure of realizing just how much was now riding on their actions all striking home suddenly as she started towards the door.

The Doctor, still concerned, looked to Twilight.

“I’ll go with her. We’ll go up on the roof so we can stay out of sight,” the unicorn answered with a sigh, now feeling more than slightly guilty after having gone all out and trying to coax Fluttershy into traveling along with the Doctor with promises of how amazing and wondrous it was.

The Doctor nodded, waving Twilight to go after her and amazed at his own patience in this situation. In past incarnations, Fluttershy’s timidness and withdrawn nature in the face of danger would have been an annoyance at best… or enough to incite actual anger in some of his harsher mindsets. She just didn’t have the sort of personality that he usually sought out in his companions, and now, he was wondering why he had agreed to bring her along at all.

Still, this was yet another introspective curiosity that he had to shove to the back of his mind as the two mares moved cautiously to a window, Fluttershy lifting the black curtain while Twilight peeked out for any sign of the Anasi. He had more pressing matters ahead of him as he watched Zilaka lift the last of six blackened gourds from the bubbling mixture in the cauldron.

“Are they ready?”

“The brewing process is done, yes," the zebra answered. "Although whether or not they will work, there is only one way to find out.”

The Doctor looked to the stallion’s workstation, intrigued to see how this was going to proceed. He had already been impressed by Zilaka’s expertise in instantly identifying the dried leaves and ground-up powders that were inside the unmarked vials, jars, and gourds that were all about his hut, putting them together with an ease that came from a lifetime of professional practice. But now there was the most crucial point of any experiment: the testing.

Although, given the lack of any guinea pigs, small rodents, or some other testable creatures on the table, the Doctor was more than a bit curious as to how the intelligent zebra was going to test his concoctions. A curiosity that was only enhanced when the zebra brought his forehooves to the worktable and reached up to take a small wooden box from a shelf, setting it down next to a vial filled with a glowing green fluid.

“Hold on a moment… When did you…?” The Doctor raised an eyebrow as he took notice of the fluid, his eyes scanning the table a moment before he saw the black spider trapped under an overturned glass.

“Is something the matter, Doctor?”

“You already milked the spider?”

“Oh, yes, some time ago. You were busy speaking with your marefriend.”

But, when did...? How did you…? Without any fingers…?” The Doctor’s train of questioning was thrown awry as what Zilaka said suddenly hit a chord, causing the Time Lord to stumble. “Wait, Twilight? She’s not my… Hold on, why does everyone keep jumping to that specific conclusion?”

“I meant only that she is your friend who is a mare…” the zebra stated blankly, opening the small wooden box and turning it upside down, revealing it to contain an assortment of fresh, star-shaped, brown-colored leaves with bright white veins. "What did you think I meant?"

“Ohhh… of course. Right. That’s exactly what…” The Doctor’s flustered moment passed as he decided it wasn't worth it. Why was he even worried about this? There were a dozen more pressing concerns to be dealt with at the moment. “Never mind. So, what do you have here?” The Doctor decided to move along, taking note of how the zebra was using a smaller set of tongs in his mouth to pick out several leaves and set them into a line.

“Leaves from the Limus tree,” Zilaka told the brown stallion, managing to speak clearly in spite of the wooden tongs gripped at the front of his lips. “Do you ponies not use something similar to test your own medicines?”

“Honestly? I don’t know how pony pharmacists work,” the Doctor admitted, suddenly realizing how the use of live animals to test medicinal products, a staple practice for many species of his home universe, would be considered beyond horrific by the more environmentally synced ponies. “Something I really should investigate when we get back...”

“Well, here in Zebrica, we use Limus leaves,” the zebra explained. “The leaves have a similar tolerance to stimuli as a grown zebra, but in a faster, more easily observed scale. By mimicking the symptoms of ailments in the leaves and observing their reactions to different substances, the Ash-Stripe ancestors long ago were able to determine the use of the Plains’ bounties, both good and ill.”

“A plant analogue…” The Doctor nodded, looking at the leaves with an intrigued smile. “Brilliant... Most species I've come to know have to resort to trial and error with their ill to find their cures.”

Zilaka huffed. “How barbaric.”

“Well, you can’t fault them for trying,” the Doctor defended.

“In any case… all we need… is a drop… on the stem.” Zilaka reached over with his hooves, taking hold of the small vial with the glowing green venom inside and lifting it.

The Doctor, his attention now focused, took note of the slight trembling of the glass in the zebra’s hooves and how the medicine maker was taking deep breaths to calm himself. A trembling that was not just the result of frayed nerves.

“Zilaka… are you alright? You look a bit… twitchy,” the Doctor asked, watching the zebra as he held his tongue between his teeth, attempting to steady himself.

“I am fine.”

The Doctor, taking note of how quickly the zebra responded, flicked one hoof forward.

The Doctor brought the extended device up to his nose, looking at it as the medicine zebra, with some difficulty, managed to tip a tiny drop onto the stem of each leaf, watching as the thin glowing fluid was drawn into the white stem.

“…No, you’re not.” The Doctor’s tone was soft but stern.

The zebra stallion didn’t look up. “If you would kindly put away the magic stick, Doctor…” came the striped stallion’s response, watching as the white veins in the leaves each turned green and their fleshy brown surfaces grew parched. “There are more pressing issues before us.”

The Time Lord was quiet for a moment, watching the thin zebra as he reached over for one of the gourds containing the first experimental potion.

“First test: a small dose of venom with natural detoxification agents…” The zebra shook several drops free onto the first leaf, which promptly became worse as the green veins multiplied and spread further, sucking up all the remaining moisture until the leaf itself crumbled to dust.

“I’ll take that as a failed test,” the Doctor noted.

One after another, Zilaka applied his experimental potions, the Doctor taking astute note of the results, which ranged from nothing at all happening, to a complete collapse of the leaf’s structure, to accelerating the venom’s spread until the leaf failed due to dehydration, like the first one.

Finally -- and rather reluctantly -- Zilaka moved to the last small gourd, although his expression was clearly far from hopeful.

“Ashmed-laced detoxicant.” The zebra shook the gourd, the contents swishing about inside. “I would advise standing back, Doctor.”

The Time Lord did as asked, watching with interest as Zilaka handled the gourd as if it were about to explode at any moment, carefully dribbling a small amount on the stem of the Limus leaf.

For a few moments… there was nothing.

The Doctor tilted his head to the side. “Well, that was rather anti-clima--”

Without warning, the leaf burst into grey, smoky flames that fizzled and sparkled like a small firecracker.

“Oh… Never mind.” The Doctor’s eyes went wide as he made a mental note of the "spontaneous combustion" side-effect.

Zilaka shook his head in disappointment. “As I suspected. Ashmed is too dangerous to even... Wait!”

As both stallions looked on, the oily flames were swiftly doused by a surge of bubbling, frothing green goo that rose up from the flesh of the leaf and spilled over onto the table, sizzling all the while. When it finally calmed down, Zilaka's workspace was a bit of a mess... but of the toxic green venom, not a drop of it remained on the leaf's crispy surface.

There was a moment of silence.

“Well, then...” The Doctor smirked slightly. "Aside from the obvious drawbacks, I would say we were on the right track."

Twilight Sparkle could faintly hear the movement of activity below them as the Doctor and Zilaka spoke and worked, the two clearly having discovered something of interest -- although what, exactly, the well-read mare was uncertain.

She had another problem to deal with currently.

“I shouldn’t be here...” Fluttershy shook her head, her eyes downcast as she lay across from Twilight, the two having shared an awkward silent company since the pegasus had brought them up and out of the small hut.

“You’re wrong, Fluttershy,” Twilight assured her, trying to think of how to keep her friend’s fragile confidence from shattering.

“But I’m not smart like you... or brave like Rainbow Dash... or strong like Applejack... The Doctor probably thinks I’m just a silly, whiny little filly, getting pushed around by a foal and thinking that I was being so clever for a bunch of stupid ideas...”

“I asked about doing something similar when we went to Roan, Fluttershy. It’s not about you being ‘silly,’ it’s all really complicated stuff that takes time to understand. You’re doing great, so far.”

“I ran away while you and the Doctor were captured... got blackmailed and bullied by a ten year-old filly... against my better judgement, flew her into a dark, dangerous, scary cave inside a bigger, scarier mountain... and then let her get bitten by that mean little spider...”

“You didn’t ‘let’ her get hurt, Fluttershy, it just happened,” Twilight stated in a matter-of-factly tone. “And, honestly, I think that Zecora knew that's how things were going to turn out when she told you about her dad.”

The pegasus looked over to her friend. “...What?”

“Fluttershy, think about it.” Twilight’s tone remained calm, but edged with a sternness that she tended to use during her many lecturing moments. “The Zecora we know told you specifically about the Ashmed and Mount Thunder Drum. She told you about her father and how far back to go when you didn’t even mention anything about us having access to a time machine, right?”

“Y...yes...” Fluttershy nodded.

“Why would she do that unless she knew that we would be here? Doing the right thing and trying to help her.”

“But the Doctor said--”

“He said things could change. We just can’t sit back and take for granted that we’ll win. That’s all he meant,” Twilight explained, trying to make her friend understand. “Maybe time can be rewritten, but it’s up to us to do the best that we can. And Zecora didn’t ask for Rainbow Dash, or Applejack, or even me, specifically... She told you.”

“Only because I was already there...” Fluttershy countered.

“And now you’re here,” Twilight noted confidently. “Right where we need you.”

Fluttershy was quiet for a moment, absorbing her words, before looking up into the clear night sky. High above them shone a beautiful full moon with darker surface markings in the outline of a unicorn, and after a moment of trying to figure out what was out of place, Fluttershy realized what it was.

“The Mare in the Moon,” she gasped.

“Yeah...” Twilight nodded. “It’ll be another twenty-five years before Nightmare Moon attacks Equestria and attempts to bring about nighttime eternal. So we have that to look forward to.”

“I never thought about places other than Equestria seeing Princess Luna up there...” Fluttershy remarked.

“Well, they may not know the story, but I’m sure everywhere they can see the Moon, there are equines and griffins and dragons and all sorts of other thinking creatures that have looked up and wondered...” Twilight paused, her sky-cast eyes catching a sudden shadow moving across the silvery moon. “What was that?”

“I know what you mean. I had never even heard the real legend of Nightmare Moon. You know, except for the Nightmare Night version where Princess Luna was--”

“No, I mean what was that? Did you see that?” Twilight squinted, looking up into the starry sky and, for the first time since she had awoken, taking a good long look and realizing for the first time just how few stars were actually visible.

And it took her a few seconds longer to realize why so much of the starry night seemed to be blackened out.

Several more gourds, each filled with varying combinations and concentrations of the dwindling supply of Ashmed were now set into the bubbling cauldron as Zilaka righted the last container of the batch and ensured it would float in place without turning to expose the open steam-vent in the stem to the bubbling Mau Juice. They had marked the gourds this time, hoping to find a balance where the concentration of the poisonous prong weed could react with the spider’s venom and expel it from the body without instantly killing the patient.

But now there was little for the zebra stallion to do but wait while the potions simmered, so he turned toward his unexpected partner in this endeavor, who had some time ago admitted to simply being in the zebra’s way and went about studying the stone that he had carried in the satchel along with their venom donor.

“What is that thing, anyway?” Zilaka asked, attempting to ward off his own late-night exhaustion by staying invested in what was going on around him.

“It’s a psycho-reactive crystalline structure.” The Doctor rolled the round object in his hoof a moment, speaking casually.

Zilaka was quiet as he thought for a few beats. “No, I mean the thing you are holding there,” he restated, hoping that this time he might understand what the brown stallion was saying.

“Surprisingly dense and heavy for its size...” the Doctor went on, ignoring the second question. “Irregular angles and a lack of polishing... Hmm. If I remember correctly, Twilight said that gorgons seeded and grew the gemstones that were common in Equestria. Zilaka, I’m curious: Do your herds have access to precious stones?”

“The glittery rocks that drakes and dragons covet and devour?” The zebra shook his head. “No. The zebra herds hold no value for such trinkets. They are just more weight to carry for nomads during their migrations.”

“Well, what about those?” The Doctor gestured to the zebra’s ears, causing Zilaka to reach up and touch at the two golden rings he wore in each ear. “I mean, it’s hard to get much more heavier than gold.”

“Oh, these? These are an Ash-Stripe tradition!” the potion maker explained proudly. “Sages of our herd wear a gold ring as a symbolic representation of mastery over a specific discipline. Stallions wear them in our ears, while mares tend to wear larger ones around one leg or around their necks.”

“I see...” The Doctor nodded, looking back towards the round crystal in his hooves. “Out of curiosity, what do yours stand for?”

“I am a sage of plant knowledge, medicine, poisons, and witchcraft,” Zilaka answered, no small amount of pride in his voice as one hoof pointed to each of the rings in his ears.

“Well, I’m sure glad my kind didn’t have that tradition on Gallifrey. I’d never be able to lift my head off the ground,” the Doctor remarked with some humor before taking note of the last item on that list. “Wait... ‘witchcraft’?”

“Your unicorns are not the only ones with knowledge of the arcane. Long ago, unicorn travelers traded secrets with our sages, and they cultured skills that mixed their supernatural power with our potion-making traditions. I believe your kind refers to it as ‘Alchemy.’ Although, I have not practiced its use in many years. The reagents required are rare at the best of times; in the Parching, they are all but extinct.”

“So, let me get this straight...” The Doctor’s muzzle suddenly was covered in a goofy grin. “You’re a medicine maker...”

“Yes...?” Zilaka confirmed, unsure where the brown stallion was going with this.

“...who is also a witch?”

“I do not think I would go quite that far.”

“And you don't have a word for 'doctor' in your language. Why?”

“That is your name, is it not?”

“Oh, no... I don’t make it a habit to give out my actual name. As I said before, ‘Doctor’ is more of a title than anything else. But we’ve gone way off topic here, haven't we?” The Doctor shook his head and looked back to the crystal in his hooves, setting it down before flicking his hoof forward.

“That's one thing I can’t seem to get a hold of, pony ADD and all. I get distracted far too easily... In any case, nothing else for it, so let’s see what’s going on inside.”

The sonic screwdriver head glowed in a rainbow of colors as the Doctor held it over the stone, the pitch and frequency of its emissions bouncing between extremes...

...before the stone cracked wide open, falling into two irregular halves and exposing a dark reddish-colored interior lined like a geode, with black lines etched along the dull crystals and a hollow pit in the center.

“Oooooh, hello, there...” The Doctor stepped down on his device, which stopped its noise as he picked up a half of the strange stone, speaking aloud to it like the object could hear him. “You’re not from around here at all, are you?”

“I don’t understand... What is it?” Zilaka watched the Doctor lowered his goggles over his eyes and brought the broken half of the stone closer to his face.

“It’s a self-contained crystalline lattice,” the Doctor explained. “A sort of... amplifier for a specific type of energy. In this case, psychic energy.”

“Meaning...?”

“Mind magic,” the Time Pony simplified, bringing the piece so close to his face that the crystals were almost touching his goggles. “You can find these on some worlds under absolutely perfect storm conditions. But from what I’ve seen of Equis, this world isn’t one of them. These stones didn't form naturally... they were grown -- forcibly grown, from the looks of it. Something’s wrong with the process.”

The Doctor held out the stone and lifted his goggles.

“These black lines are striations; they indicate extremely rapid growth, which causes anomalies in the crystals and reduces their effectiveness. Must be why they needed so many in one place to work. That means that Anasi, whoever and whatever she is, has an understanding of the basic principles behind creating a crystal lattice, but no method of refining the process in order to...”

The Doctor stopped speaking suddenly, and his snout broke into a wide grin.

“What? What is it?” Zilaka asked, not fully understanding what the Doctor was saying, but taking from his long-winded explanation that it was something important.

He wasn’t sure why, but the brown pony’s sudden chuckle sent chills down his spine.

“I know who they a~are.” The Time Lord’s tone took on a dangerously lighthearted singsong quality as he shook his head, clearly reveling in some unspoken revelation. One that quickly went from gleeful to concerned as his grin faded and he looked at the broken piece of stone in his hoof. “Uh-oh.”

“Uh-oh? What ‘uh-oh’?” Zilaka’s earlier chill was replaced with a dread he couldn’t quite understand falling into the pit of his empty stomach.

“I overlooked something. Crystal lattices can act as an amplifier, but they can also work as a storage unit for psychic energy. Even if that’s not their intended use, they build up charges inside just from having that sort of ‘magic’ run through them for a prolonged period,” the Doctor explained.

“I do not understand...”

“Well, most crystals are rather hard, but brittle if you can hit them with just the right frequency...” The Doctor set the stone down and reached over to take hold of a stave sitting in one corner, taking it in his teeth and jamming it up to thump against the ceiling a few times. “The resonance can crack them right open,” the Doctor continued when he set the stave back down.

“You are not making any sense, Doctor.” The zebra’s tone was confused as the brown pony moved around to the window, lifting the curtain just in time to see Fluttershy’s face.

“Doctor! Twilight just realized something! The Rocs are--”

“Fluttershy, stay on the roof and out of sight. Tell Twilight to trust her instincts and I’ll see you both as soon as I can.”

“Wha...?” Fluttershy’s face showed a moment of confusion, her immediate concern derailed.

“Go!”

With that, the Doctor lowered the curtain, leaving the confused pegasus without any further answers as Zilaka started to lose patience. “What are you going on about, Doctor?”

“Zilaka, I just want you to know, right now... that I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“Breaking open that stone didn’t just break the crystal’s physical structure.” The Time Lord sighed, his ears perking up. “It released a burst of psychic energy... which would have been like a flare to creatures sensitive to it.”

“They’re here,” the Doctor stated calmly...

...before one last, hard kick sent the door to the medicine hut flying into pieces.

“Ohmygoshohmygosh...” Fluttershy whimpered quietly as she and Twilight lay low on the roof, trying not to draw attention. They watched as two more pairs of the large zebra warriors darted from between the huts across the pathway to join the loud crashing of the struggle taking place inside. Twilight remained silent, holding a foreleg over her friend as she tried to calm her.

They had only managed a few seconds’ warning between when Fluttershy had relayed the Doctor’s cryptic message and when she had noted the first pair of the burly, nearly identical zebras rushing forward to kick at Zilaka’s front door, allowing her just enough time to pull herself and Fluttershy flat against the top of the roof to avoid being seen from below.

While this wouldn’t have been an effective method in Equestria by any means, as pegasus guards and other winged authorities would be sure to check the rooftops of any building containing hostile ponies, zebras didn’t seem to have that problem, having never really encountered beings capable of easily accessing such heights, and thus gave them no thought.

Internally, Twilight was torn as she listened to the continued struggle, the sound of crashing gourds, the high-pitched whine of the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver, and the clattering and crashing of metal as the two attempted to fend off and resist multiple larger and far more well-trained equines.

Part of her wanted to go down and get into it as well; to help fend them off. But she knew full well that, without her magic, she would stand even less chance than Fluttershy, who, when properly motivated, could overpower creatures far larger than herself.

Now it was her turn to feel useless...

...No! She couldn’t start thinking like that. Nopony is ever useless, the Doctor taught her that much, at least.

As the crashing started to calm down, Twilight got Fluttershy’s attention, bringing a hoof to her lips to indicate her friend needed to stay quiet as she slowly and silently tried to pull herself to the lip of the roof, watching and listening intently.

Pain. Burning. Chest on fire. Blood on fire. Cannot breathe.

Cannot breathe!

Zecora’s eyes snapped open as she was suddenly wrenched out of unconsciousness, a thousand thoughts all rushing in at once, with two being the most prevalent of the mess.

Namely, the pain throbbing from her neck... and the fact that there was a hoof placed right over and under her snout.

Thrashing violently and squealing in shock, the foal’s teal eyes were filled with terror as she looked up to the cold, merciless face of the striped Anasi enforcer that held her down. Holding her for a few more moments, the filly flailed and squirmed, panicking as a lightheadedness started setting in while her shoulder and part of her face throbbed in agony with every rapid heartbeat. Her legs kicked out as she tried in vain to dislodge the hooves holding her mouth shut and covering her nostrils.

Just as she started to see a grey tunnel forming around the edges of her vision, the zebra stallion suddenly released her, causing the filly’s mouth to open and her body to fall back. Gasping for breath and turning on her side, her muscles were burning almost as badly as the green veins that were visible under her coat.

“Uuuunngghh...” was all the filly was able to relay as she curled up into a ball, the worst pain of her life tearing across her body.

“Where is the horned one?” the adult zebra asked in a cold, careless tone that offered absolutely no sympathy for her condition. The filly whimpered in response, barely hearing the question.

“It is in no condition to answer us,” another stallion noted, his own tone of voice eerily similar as the foal attempted to recover, gasping for breath and able to do little else. “To the Pit?”

Unable to speak, flee, or even move, Zecora had never felt so helpless and vulnerable in all of her life. Tears rimming her eyes, she tried to get a bearing on her surroundings, realizing with some shock that she was in the familiar setting of her own home.

What had happened...? What was going on?

“No... Her fate is sealed already, and in light of the Prophet’s renewed... reluctance... and the Warlord’s fragile loyalty, both could become a concern if this one were to meet the Pit. Take the two stallions, search elsewhere for the horned mare.”

Zecora tried to lift her head, crying out in agony as the side of her neck burned as if she was suddenly being stabbed with a spear.

A new shiver went down her spine as she heard the stallion spoke again. “Leave the little one to suffer.”

Barely able to move and unable to speak, Zecora lay there, pain ripping through her body as she clenched her eyes shut.

This wasn’t happening. This couldn't be happening. She was smarter than this... She had to... to...

Agony interrupted her thoughts as her neck throbbed again, like piercing needles underneath the skin.

She heard them moving around, heard a splashing sound and could smell a slightly sour aroma... Mau Juice... Her father’s simmering cauldron; they had turned it over.

Her father... Was he...?

PAIN!

Her thoughts were cut off by another jabbing pain that caused the filly to grind her teeth to the point of feeling as if they would crack. The sharpness of the agony faded after a moment, a lull that she was growing to fear as much as the surges.

There was no sound... had they vanished? No, she had... she must have blacked out for a moment...

Zecora tried to raise her head and take a look around. Her home was a mess, her father’s containers and bottles thrown and smashed with abandon, only a few remaining in place. And the large cauldron had indeed been overturned, its contents, along with several blackened gourds, laying all about on the floor.

She tried to pull herself forward... If she could just--

PAIN!

“Ah...!” Zecora bit her lip, drawing blood as she suddenly went tumbling off of the alcove bed and onto the floor, her coat becoming soaked and a horrid taste filling her mouth as she fell in the brown fluid that was now pooled there.

It was too much... This was horrific, unbearable, torturous...

It was also all her own fault.

The realization was so stunning it nearly endured her to the next wave of agony that washed over her from her neck. Almost.

“Unnngh!” Zecora kicked out her legs as she tried to pull herself up, failing miserably. “Mother... Father... Zulu...” she whimpered pathetically, laying her head to the side as the terrible taste of the Mau Root juices seeped into her skin and stung at the sensitive edges of her inner ear.

Panting for breath, she stopped trying to move as a renewed wave of pain tore through her body, feeling as if those needles in her flesh were being pressed even deeper.

She was helpless... in terrible pain...

...and had no one left. Nothing but the strange, quiet sound of ruffling feathers that was suddenly overhead...

Zecora winced as she felt a set of hooves suddenly grip her midsection and lift her off the floor, her eyes opening as she feared the return of an Anasi warrior that perhaps thought her current state was not punishment enough. But instead, she was greeted with a warm embrace that held her against soft yellow fur.

“It’s alright... I’ve got you.”

“F...Flutter...shy?” Zecora gasped and winced as another pulse of pain rippled out from her neck, causing her to latch onto the pegasus as she carefully maneuvered the two of them over the spill of brown juice and set her down on her father’s worktable.

“Don’t worry, they’re gone... You’re safe now...” Fluttershy cooed softly, and then was stunned when the small zebra suddenly reached up and grabbed hold of her, hugging her around the shoulders sobbing into the older mare’s neck, who didn't recoil in spite of the taste of the Mau Root Juice filling her mouth from where the zebra's fur touched her.

“I am sorry, Fluttershy! I am so, so sorry! About everything I said... what I did... calling you stripeless...” The filly winced, her apologies hampered by the same pain that was attributing to her tears. “I just... I just...”

“You wanted to save your mother... I know.” Fluttershy patted the filly, keeping her voice low and soothing. “It’s alright... I don’t blame you for any of it.”

“And I’m sorry too, Zecora... but we need your help,” a new voice greeted the young zebra’s ear, causing her to attempt to turn, an action that wracked her face and side with pain as the wound in her neck felt like it was torn anew.

Gasping and panting to recover, Zecora heard a set of hoofsteps against the floor as the purple mare she had seen in the Prophet’s Chamber moved around in front of her, black lines running over her fur in a pattern that she might have considered quite artistic under different circumstances.

“Zecora, my name is Twilight Sparkle,” the unicorn stated. “You don’t know me. Yet. But right now, I need you to trust me. The Anasi have taken your father and our friend, the Doctor. If we’re going to get them back, we need your help.”

“B-but I cannot...” The filly clenched one eye shut as she shuddered, suppressing another painful cry as she tried to speak. “...What can I do? I can barely move...”

“Fluttershy says that you told her your father taught you everything he knew about potion-making.”

“What...? I did no such thing... Ah-aaah...!” Zecora’s confusion was cut off as she experienced another wave of pain.

“Zecora, this is important... We need a potions expert. Can you help us?” Twilight pleaded, leaving the comforting to Fluttershy as she regretfully pressed the pained filly to answer.

Trying hard to keep her breath, the filly looked around the hut that she grew up in, from the sparkling red stones that lay under where the cauldron normally sat, to the bottles and jars that were still lining some of the shelves or laying intact on the floor.

Biting her lip, the filly nodded.

“Good... Let’s start with the recipe for your father’s sleep drought,” Twilight’s expression was determined as she watched the filly expectantly.

Apple Bloom didn’t know how long she had been asleep... but the sounds of soft laughter roused her from slumber with surprising ease as her ears twitched and flicked around.

Drowsy at first, the farm filly wasn’t quite sure where she was or why she had no covers over her, but at hearing a sudden, pained gasp in the room with her, her eyes bolted open and memories flooded back in of the day before.

“Zecora?” Apple Bloom looked around, realizing she had laid down on the floor at some point and must have dozed off.

Standing next to the bed was Big Macintosh, who turned to face her with a soft smile as she looked past him... and gasped in shock of what she saw.

Zecora, whom Apple Bloom had always considered to be a lovely mare, looked far worse this morning than she had the night before. The green veins that had only covered half of her face now encompassed the whole of it, giving her a hollow, deathly complexion that must have been absolutely agonizing. Yet in spite of this, she still held a soft smile on her lips.

“Oh, mah stars... Zecora... are you...?” Apple Bloom stopped herself from finishing that sentence. Clearly, the zebra was far from alright.

“I have been better.” Zecora nodded. “I woke up some time ago. Your brother has been keeping me company.”

Apple Bloom’s jaw all but hit the floor. “Y...yer talkin’...”

“Actually, your brother has been doing most of the talking. I was unaware that he was so... well... We really have not spent much time together at all, before,” Zecora noted, looking to the red stallion, who averted his gaze, blushing a bit. “Later, if we have time... we will have to remedy that.”

“No... Ah mean...” Apple Bloom as amazed at how relaxed the zebra seemed, in spite of her looking so horrible and wincing at regular intervals as the pain she had been fighting since the day before continued to wash over her. “Ya ain’t talkin’ in rhymes.”

Zecora sighed. “No... and it is the first time in my entire adult life that I have not.” Zecora looked to her left hoof, which Apple Bloom noticed had also been covered in green lines overnight. “My treatment has worn off completely... and the pain has diminished.”

“W-wait, so... yer gettin' better?” Applebloom looked up hopefully.

The soft smile on Zecora’s face faded. “I am afraid not. This is merely the second phase of my condition,” the zebra explained with a dose of melancholy. “A bit of a respite before what ails me takes full hold of my body.”

What little hope Apple Bloom had was dashed as Big Mac bowed his head, looking more morose than the filly had ever remembered seeing him. “S-so... what happens next?” she asked, fearful of the answer.

“The Bite will take full hold and the pain will become constant... as if I was being burned alive from within. And once it drains all of the water from my flesh... my Roc will suffer no obstacle, wall or pony, to prevent it from taking me.”

Almost as if on cue, there was a shadow that darkened the window for a few moments before passing over, filling the young Apple filly with a terrible chill.

“At that point, my young friend... it will take a pony far stronger and braver even than you to save me.”

Fluttershy bent down, picking up yet another gourd as Twilight moved around the righted-up cauldron and clumsily attempted to lift the container she had been using for her attempt to recreate Zilaka’s sleeping drug. She had spent the last several hours helping to clean up the area, as well as restoring the condition of Zilaka's potion-making setup. All so that Twilight, guided by Zecora, could try to replicate the same drug that the Anasi Warriors used, though she had yet to explain what good this was going to be in rescuing the Doctor or Zilaka himself.

Zecora, who had been watching and advising between bouts of pain, lay on the workbench with an exhausted expression and hollow eyes as she tried desperately to focus.

“C...careful... If you shake it too much before it settles, it will bubble over and the entire mix will go to pot... Four hours wasted...” The filly winced a bit, the pain still constant and terrible. But as the infection seemed to spread slowly over her skin, she found it steadily easier to deal with, if only because it was less concentrated. “That is the secret to how it works so quickly. When it hits blood, it evaporates and mixes into the system at high speed, right to the vital organs, and sends them into relaxed state. Instant sleep.”

“But do you think my modification will work?” Twilight asked, placing the gourd as gently as she could on the table next to a set of clay jars as Fluttershy moved up on the opposite side, placing the last of the picked up containers in a pile.

“It sounds like it might... But my father never even thought of using it like you are wanting to now.” Zecora broke off as she winced, biting on her lip again. Something she had done so often over the past few hours that Twilight was now wondering if those scars would still be present if and when they got back to Ponyville.

“Zecora,” Fluttershy spoke up, drawing the filly’s attention. “You know, there has to be something in here that could dull the pain... Would you like us to--”

“No,” the filly sighed, grunting as she tried to endure another wave. “Anything that lessens the pain speeds the spread... My father said that... ah... the blood thins when pain medicines are given to zebras... and it makes them worse much more quickly.”

“We have to do something...” Twilight pulled herself up a bit on the workbench, setting her forelegs out as her focus stayed on the filly that had aided her in what was likely their only chance to see the Doctor or Zilaka again. “I know your dad was working on a cure, so maybe one of these--”

“First rule of medicine...” Zecora interrupted with a huff. “Never take anything you did not either make yourself or watch being made.”

“Well, sometimes you just have to trust your doctor,” Fluttershy responded, moving around in front of the young zebra as Twilight moved away.

“Doctor... You mean your other friend?”

“Well, no. That is, I do trust him, but... Oh, right. Zebras don’t have a word for that... A doctor is... kind of like what your father does. A pony who helps other ponies.” The yellow pegasus hesitated a bit in her attempt to explain. “Of course, he’s going to help the other zebras too if he can--”

“FLUTTERSHY!” Zecora cried out suddenly, causing the pegasus to recoil as the filly, in spite of her clear and apparent pain, reached over and grabbed one of the gourds in the nearby pile. Fluttershy flinched reflexively, drawing both hooves over her head as the zebra then brought it down in front of her.

The blackened gourd smashed against the edge of the table where Fluttershy’s foreleg had been just moments before, crushing the small black spider that had been liberated from its milking duties and, hidden amongst the overturned and scattered debris of the medicine hut, was waiting for a new victim to come into reach.

The force of the strike itself caused the dry, boiled gourd husk to crack and split, the contained juices spraying out in all directions as its container failed catastrophically.

Fluttershy, who had escaped being completely soaked by the gourd’s contents due to her defensive positioning, still had to wipe the clear liquid from her brow before looking at Zecora, who was still holding a broken piece of the gourd, but was now soaking wet with its contents.

“...Got it...” was all the filly managed to say, her mohawk mane now laying flat from the moisture that dripped down her face.

“Jeez! I turn my back for two seconds and you two are--” Twilight sounded annoyed at first as Fluttershy came to a realization of just what happened.

“No, no, it’s alright," Fluttershy interrupted, raising a hoof to get Twilight to back down. "She... she saved me... That spider the Doctor caught. it was...”

“Ow,” Zecora said suddenly with an odd flatness to her voice. Both ponies looked to her.

“Zecora? Are you--” Fluttershy started, only to be stopped mid-sentence as a new sound filled the hut.

“Ow... Ow, ow, ow! AHHHH!” The zebra suddenly doubled over as both hooves went to her neck, which was suddenly bubbling as if her blood had begun to boil. A small river of green pus started running down her shoulder and chest as she cried out, the bite mark on her neck bleeding profusely.

“Whoa!” Twilight rushed forward, steadying the young zebra as best she could without touching the venomous-looking bile and preventing the filly from falling off the table.

“Ohmygosh!” Fluttershy, unsure what to do, looked about and dove off to the side, taking up in her teeth the small coarse blanket that was laying on the bed and rushing over to the crying zebra filly’s side.

Twilight held her still as Fluttershy moved in and tried to wipe the ooze away, and when she did... what the unicorn saw was nothing short of remarkable: The green lines that were spreading across the foal’s face and shoulder receded, drawing back to the bite mark itself as the sizzling and bubbling stopped, and the zebra fell limply into her.

“Zecora! Zecora, are you alright!? Zecora!” Twilight resisted the urge to shake the filly as she pushed her up, the striped foal looking as if she was about to pass out.

“I think... I am ready... for bed...” she uttered, sounding far beyond exhausted. There was a moment’s pause as the filly seemed to suddenly lose her breath before quickly spitting out, “Wake me later... if I am not dead.” Zecora then gasped with a sudden inhale, as if she was unable to do so before finishing her sentence.

Meanwhile, Twilight and Fluttershy looked to one another, eyes wide.

“W... why did I do that...? Why did I rhyme?” Zecora shook her head, her eyes drooping as she started to feel heavy in Twilight’s hooves. “Why do you look... as if I committed... a crime...?”

With that, Zecora passed out, her head bobbing forward as the two ponies shared a stunned expression.

Evoria of the Towiki Herd lay quite awake on the dirt floor of a crowded hut as she watched the sun start to peek in through the window. With a dry tongue and a growling belly, the young filly’s enthusiasm at seeing the village of Stone-Water earlier had long since worn itself out, perhaps even before they had entered the village itself.

Now, rather than the open Plains, there were huts that she and her parents seemed to be moving to and from, attempting to find something to drink or eat as the herd she had known all her life split up.

She had been told that it would be better here, that the Anasi shared their water freely. But the only water she could remember being offered "freely" had come wrapped in an aura of glowing purple light the night before last. It might as well have been a few months... or a few years ago.

Still, the sun was rising and the new day was just beginning. She had to hope... to believe that something was going to get better.

She had to.

“Evoria...” came a strained, tired voice that caused the filly to lean up, rolling to her hooves as she turned to see who it was that had called her.

“Yes, Father?”

“I think... I remember Teaka saying...” Evoria’s father panted, and the filly winced as he coughed dryly. As thirsty as she was, she realized, her father must have been doing worse, having had precious little to drink himself over the past few days' journey. “Saying that they bring out supplies... at dawn. See if you can... fetch some before... any of the others wake up.”

Stretching a bit and popping her knees, the filly nodded, stifling a yawn and not wanting to speak any more than she had to as the taste of sand gritted on her tongue.

Rubbing her eyes with one hoof, the filly started to the door of the hut, having to leap and climb over several other zebras of different herds that had also taken shelter there because it was closer to the mountain itself, where it was said the Anasi maintained a great spring.

Her imagination ran wild with the idea of so much water... A rushing brook. or even a river, right under the mountain. Being able to lean down and submerge her snout in it as it flowed past... Just the thought of it was enough to lighten her hoofsteps as she moved out the door and blinked in the bright sunlight, only to have another zebra nearly bowl her over.

“Ugh!” Evoria was about to say something in retaliation until she actually took a second to look over the zebra, an older colt who was actually moving back and away from the village center... Strange, for that was where the Anasi would likely bring out any rationed supplies... What was stranger still was the fact that his neck was craned upward, his eyes wide and his expression fearful, gasping for breath.

A cold sensation suddenly filled the filly that had nothing at all to do with the final chill of the previous night as her eyes too were drawn upward.

“...F-father...?” she uttered quietly, taking a step back towards the door. “MOTHER! FATHER!”

Evoria scrambled back under shelter, desperately wishing to unsee what she had seen as her cries were echoed across Stone-Water by zebras young and old alike.

Outside, the collective terror of the great many zebra herds filled the air with a palpable sense of impending doom. The ground was a flurry of motion and chaos as those few who were awake at this hour roused their friends and loved ones, children cried out for their parents, and zebras of all stripes ran to find any kind of shelter they could.

Shelter... from the unflinching, uncaring, soulless black eyes that gazed down from above with a detached, clinical interest. Their wings beating in deathly silence, Roc after Roc flew above, below, and beside each other in mechanical patterns.

They circled Thunder Drum like a gathering tempest of inky black feathers, darkening the very sky around the mountain with the sheer magnitude of their numbers.

Watching.

Waiting.